Hero
by MrPresident
Summary: A demon from the past comes to destroy the present and ends up changing the future. Hell, that makes sense to me. [Warning B/X]
1. At The Beginning Of Every Story There Li...

What Makes Green Eggs And Ham, Green?

Summary

I don't currently have a summary for this story as I am kind of writing it as I go along. Sorry if you find this annoying but you can, you know, kiss my [insert approriate word here]. 

Disclaimer

I do not nor ever have claimed the rights to any Disney-afflicted character. Nor have I tried in anyway to fix any sporting event or competition. And the stories about me trying to build 'Popeland'© on the Vatican had no foundation in truth. The same goes for that thing involving me, a cow, some peanuts (unsalted), a McDonalds's golden arc and a blowtorch. And the less said about the whole swimming pool incident in that hotel in Berlin the better. As for the reports about me possessing a surreal sense of humour are quite obviously false.   

At The Beginning Of Every Story There Lies The Legendary Chapter One.  

It was your typical school day for Alexander Harris. He had spent much of it either looking out of the window or looking at Buffy. He didn't know if she could tell that he was looking at her, if she did she never said anything about it. At that moment a loud ringing sound bought Xander back into reality and he realised he had been staring at her again. Luckily that was the last class of the day. He could forget about trigonometry for another day. He could never understand why they taught such subjects at school, it is not like he is ever going to need trigonometry in his future life. His future life. He didn't have a clue about what was going to be. Suddenly a wave of fear came over him, what was he going to do? What sort of life would be lead? He wouldn't have the grades for college and he didn't have a career lined up. When he looked into the horizon of the future he saw nothing, just a blank space. But he put these thoughts out of his mind as he entered the school library. Undoubtedly there would be a new big bad evil in town and he could focus on that and hopefully these doubts would stop plaguing him, at least for a while. Now I don't want you to get the impression that he hoped for some sort of evil that could threaten the world. He didn't. It was just that if one happened to show up he was more than glad that they got to stop it. Well most of the time anyway. 

Xander walked into the library as usual and the usual gang of people were sitting or standing around. Willow and Oz were sitting reading a book that Xander could only guess was about demons. Buffy was training and Giles was, well, taking the brunt of that training. Cordelia was standing by the counter reading some sort of fashion magazine; he never could understand why women read those magazines. The only advantage they have from his point of view was the fact that they contained pictures of semi-clad beautiful women and he didn't think that particularly interested most women. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. There was no frantic searching through books looking for the latest evil demon from hell intent of bringing a plague upon the world, or another equally devilish plot to generally bring about misery. Well, you can't win everything. Just to make sure Xander asked, "No big bad evil demon thing this week?"

"No, we are evil demon free." Willow replied just briefing looking up from her book.

"Where have you been?" Asked Cordelia. "You were supposed to go shopping with me so we could get you less-dorky clothes."

That brought a smile from Buffy, who had stopped training since she landed a particularly powerful blow on Giles's glove which had made him yelp out in pain. 

"Yes honey I know but there was something called school. And as much as I love shopping with you I really wanted to learn about trigonometry." Said Xander.

"If you didn't want to go you should have just said." Said Cordelia.

"I don't want to go." Said Xander.

"Well how do you like that." Said Cordelia in her usual way when Xander did something she didn't like. "I try to give you a little bit of class and what do I get?"

"A cookie?" Answered Buffy. This time it was Xander who smiled.

Cordelia carried oblivious to Buffy's comment. "No thank you Cordelia, no that was nice of you, no nothing. Well, that's it I am not helping you buy anymore clothes ever!"

"There is no need to be so dramatic." Said Xander trying to get back on Cordy's good side. "I'll come shopping with you tomorrow. You can buy me all the trendy crap you want. Hell I'll even treat you to a beauty makeover thing you like so much." 

"I can get you anything?" Said Cordy. 

"Yes." Said Xander.

"Even one of those shirts that you hate?" Asked Cordy

"Especially one of those shirts." Replied Xander.

Cordy gave Xander a smile to indicate that she had forgiven him. They then proceeded to have a little make-up kissing. 

_End of chapter one, please turn over the tape for chapter two._

****


	2. Quoth The Raven, Nevermore

What Makes Green Eggs And Ham, Green?

**Quoth The Raven, Nevermore.**

Buffy looked over at the couple and a wave of jealously fell over her. The suddenness of the feeling left her momentarily dazed. That was strange, she thought. Why was she jealous of Xander and Cordelia? She felt that way before when she saw them kissing, or do she? She couldn't remember. That too was strange. She began to search through her mind for a possible explanation for her feelings. What was the cause of the jealously? She thought about the scene that she had been confronted with, Xander and Cordelia kissing. Then it hit her; it must be because of their closeness. Something that was very much lacking in her own life. It was her desire for a similar sort of companion that had created those feelings of jealously. It was obvious to her now. The fact that Willow has Oz must have doubled her own feelings of loneliness to a point where the actions of a loving couple could cause her to feel jealous. A times life really sucks, she thought. The moment you are alone everyone else in the world gets hooked up. There is probably a word for that, I guess I should pay more attention in English class, thought Buffy.

There hadn't been much activity in her recent patrols and Giles was getting slightly worried. Buffy didn't know why, to her less work was a good thing. Must be because he is English, makes him worry more. Whatever it was he was much more silent than usual and that disturbed Buffy. None of the others seemed to notice but then again none of the others have super slayer powers. There was something about his demeanor, big word maybe she had been paying attention in English class, which triggered the red alarm in Buffy's head. He spent more and more time engrossed in his books. Now this may seem like the obvious course of action of a librarian and a watcher but there was an indescribable way in which he did this that caught the attention of Buffy. She couldn't quite put her finger on it but she felt it. This was part of the reason why she hadn't mentioned anything to the gang. She kept it to herself hoping that it would turn out to purely in her mind. Although she wasn't too keen on the idea of her slowly becoming insane. She would take that over having a world threatening evil, again. She never understood why all these demons were trying to destroy the world. What makes them sure that they will like what it would become? And everyone who has tried to beforehand had failed, why do they think they will success? She thought about it for a while and came to the conclusion that it must be because they are evil and trying to destroy the world is some sort of tradition for them. Like having turkey for thanksgiving.

Buffy had been standing staring into space for quite a while. So long in fact that it had attracted the attention of Xander, "Hey Buff, what you looking at?"

"Nothing." She replied. It was the true. There was nothing peculiar she was looking at.

"You been standing there for ages."

"I was just thinking." Again it was the truth.

"What about?" Inquired Xander. 

The memory of her feelings of jealously quickly brought her back into reality. "Err…nothing."

"You were staring at nothing while thinking about nothing?" Xander asked in that half-serious way when she couldn't tell if he was mocking her or not.

"Just a whole big load of nothing." She replied assuming that he wasn't being serious.

"I hear ya." She sighed in relief. He had been joking. "After trigonometry my brain kind of shuts down."

"They should put a warning on trigonometry textbooks. Caution: May cause loss of brain function."

At this Xander let out a loud laugh. 

_End of chapter two, please make up your own chapter three as I am feeling extremely lazy. _


	3. One Wheel Short Of A Wagon

What Makes Green Eggs And Ham, Green?

**One Wheel Short Of A Wagon.**

I wonder what they are laughing about, thought Willow. She was sitting at the table in the library and reading a book about werewolves with Oz. She had looked up and seen Xander moving over to Buffy. By now she wasn't that surprised that Xander was the first to spot when Buffy went into one of her daydreams, at least that is what Willow thought they were. She had come to the conclusion long ago that he loved Buffy and not her. Still she felt a pain in her stomach whenever he had that look in his eye. She felt that pain now. 

            I wonder what the joke was, she thought. Maybe it was about her. Maybe they were making fun of her…nah; she put the thought out of her head. They wouldn't do that. They were her friends, her best friends, they wouldn't do that. Xander had probably made a joke about him not doing well in school. He was always making jokes like that. That was part of the reason he probably liked Buffy, she also wasn't that good at school. However Willow had never believed that was because she was stupid or anything, it was just that she never seemed to apply herself. Apply herself? Man, could she sound more like a teacher?

                The quietness of the past couple of weeks had been exactly to Willow's likening. Not having to face a big bad evil and the end of the world suited her nature. Danger definitely wasn't her middle name. However she could tell that the lack of action was affecting Buffy. It seemed like she needed a distraction, from what Willow didn't know. And it may sound strange but she also got the feeling that Xander wanted to do some fighting. She didn't know why. He was always the first to complain when a new evil rolled into town. But there was something about his behaviour that Willow found a little disturbing. She would have dismisses these thoughts if it wasn't for the fact that she was an expert on Xander and his behaviour. You kind of get that way when you fall madly in love with someone, especially if that someone doesn't know that you love them.

            Willow was distracted from these thoughts when her glaze drifted over to a slumped over Giles. He was in his office at his desk and had apparently being reading a large, ancient-looking book. It seems as if he had fallen asleep. It was the logical conclusion to the image before Willow's eyes but she hesitated from coming to that conclusion as Giles never fell asleep during the day. Maybe he was just taking a rest or examining the book very thoroughly. She sat there watching him for a few minutes but he didn't make any kind of movement. Eventually she decided that he had fallen asleep, "Hey Buffy." She whispered. "Buffy." Buffy didn't hear her. "Buffy!" The whisper had turned into a high-pitched hiss.

"What?" Buffy said, turning to face Willow.

"Is Giles asleep?" At this question everyone in the room looked in the direction of Giles's office. 

"He looks asleep." Said Xander.

"He couldn't be asleep." Said Buffy. "He is probably just resting. He has been hitting the books putting hard lately."

"Hard enough to fall asleep?" Said Willow.

"This is Giles. He never falls asleep during the day. That is something Xander would do." Said Buffy.

"Hey!" Shouted Xander.

Buffy gave him a look.

"Yeah I know." He said. "But still…"

"What's going on?" Interrupted Cordelia having just come back into the library.

"Giles is asleep." Explained Willow.

"Asleep?" Said Cordy.

"He is not asleep." Said Buffy.

"He has been hitting the books pretty hard." Said Xander continuing the explanation.

"It must have been very hard for Giles to fall asleep. He never falls asleep during the day." Said Cordy.

"Why don't you just go check?" Said Oz. His voice came as quite a shock to the group who had almost forgotten he was there.

"Good idea. Go ahead Buffy." Said Xander.

"Why me?" Asked Buffy.

"You're the Slayer." Answered Xander.

"That's your answer to everything." Said Buffy. 

            Buffy slowly stepped into Giles's office as the rest of them gathered round the doorway. She tiptoed in as if she was a burglar on a midnight raid. Gradually she made her way across the office and in reach of Giles's slumped over body. She reached out a hand and moved it towards his shoulder. Her hand was moments away from touching him when the sound of a voice behind her made her jump, "Is he asleep" It was Xander.

"I think so." She whispered back. 

"Are you going to wake him up?" Asked Willow.

"No Will I thought we should rearrange his body into an amusing position."

Suddenly Xander became very excited, "Oh! We should put his hand into a bowl of warm water."

"Why?" Asked Willow.

"It will make him pee his pants." Replied Xander.

"Yew!" Said Willow in disgust.

"That doesn't really work, does it?" Asked Cordy.

"Oh yeah." Said Xander. "There was this one time when…"

"Guys!" Buffy interrupted. "We are not putting his hand in any water."

"Aww…" Xander make a disappointed sound.

"I am going to wake him up and see what caused him to fall asleep." Said Buffy in her commanding, order-giving voice.

            With that Buffy continued the movement of her hand onto his shoulder. When it reached its target she slowly started to shake Giles. It didn't seem to have any effect so she increased the rate of the shaking. This time it did wake Giles up. At first he didn't seem to know where he was. His eyes open and quickly scanned the area. And then, with a groan that comes with age, he lifted his face off the table. He turned round to be confronted by ten pairs of eyes all focused squarely at him. "What?" He said.  


	4. Important! Contains Vital Information!

What Makes Green Eggs And Ham, Green?

**IMPORTANT! Contains Vital Information.**

****

"What?" Giles asked again.

"Were you asleep?" Asked Buffy.

"Err…" Giles realised that he had actually fallen asleep. "No, I was just resting my eyes." 

"Like you do when you sleep?" Said Xander.

"Err…yes." Said in Giles in his usual nervous way.

"Any particular reason why you happen to be falling asleep during the day?" Asked Buffy.

"Yes, there does." Said Giles.

"Big, bad evil?" Asked Xander.

Giles nodded.

"What's it this week?" Said Buffy.

"Yes, well, that's the problem." Said Giles.

"What's the problem? Demons comes, Buffy fights demon, demon dies. Simple." Said Xander.

"Yes, quite. But the problem is I don't know what the demon is, when it will come and how to kill it." Said Giles.

"Do you know anything about it?" Asked Buffy.

"It is the Quixote demon who a thousand years terrorised Europe." Said Giles

"And by terrorised you mean…" Said Buffy.

"Total destruction. Landscapes were purged all of their life. Whole towns were wiped off the face of the earth."

"Oh, that kind of terrorized." Said Buffy.

"So not the sort of guy you want to meet in a dark alley at night?" Said Xander.

"How did they stop it? I'm guessing they stopped it." Asked Willow.

"A massive army containing all the righteous knights of the land was sent against it. After a long battle this army was nearly completely defeated. However a courageous knight managed to land a decisive blow with his sword into the demon's heart." Said Giles.

"So to kill it all we need to do is put a sword in its heart?" Said Buffy.

"No, the sword didn't kill it." Replied Giles.

"Then what did?" Asked Willow.

"Nothing. It couldn't be killed. However a group of monks managed to lock it in some sort of spiritual prison or something like that the translation is a little unclear. Anyway it was locked there for a thousand years." Said Giles.

"Why only a thousand years?" Said Buffy.

"It was prophesied that in a thousand years another hero would emerge and would sent it to the depths of hell." Said Giles.

"Is that a Slayer-type hero?" Asked Xander.

"I don't know. The writings are very vague on the matter." Said Giles.

"Now there's a surprise." Said Buffy.

"So, what's the plan?" Said Xander.

"Research!" Willow said excitedly. The others turned round and gave her a look. "I meant research, damn."

"I haven't got a clue what to research." Said Giles.

"So we do nothing?" Asked Buffy.

"I have arranged a trip to England and I will meet with the council. They have vastly superior resources and hopefully will be able to give us more information." Said Giles. "But until then there is nothing we can do." 

            A frustrated look came across Buffy's face. She hated it when there was an evil that she couldn't fight. Both Giles and Xander saw this and their eyes met as if to share their mutual concern. 

_End of the chapter. If you would like to know more about how I come up with my ideas then you should stop being so nosey. People have a right to privacy you know. There are some things that you don't have a right to know. You with your tabloid newspapers, you disgust me! Don't you have any morals? How do you sleep at night? You made me visibly sick! I ban you from reading any more of this story. I didn't spend several minutes writing this story so that people like you could read it. I have nothing more to say to you. For the rest of you, please continue onto to chapter five I have a feeling it is going to be a good one. I haven't written it yet but I am thinking about including a melon in the chapter somewhere. _


	5. This Chapter Has Been Recorded Over By t...

**Chapter Five – This Chapter Has Been Recorded Over By the Football. Sorry.**

**_Author's note: This Chapter is dedicated to _****_Liverpool_****_ F.C. in honour of their glorious victory over _****_Manchester_****_ United in the _****_Worthington_****_ Cup Final. And they say God doesn't exist._**

****

"When is the G-man coming back?" Asked Xander.

Giles had left for England a week ago to find out what the council knew about the new big bad evil. 

"I don't know." Replied Buffy. "But he left for England about a week ago."

Buffy, Xander and Willow were sitting around the table in the library not knowing what they should do. They didn't know if they should be doing any researching but Xander had pointed out that Giles would have told them if they needed too. 

"I know what we need." Said Xander. "We need to have a night out."

Neither of the girls looked at him with anything approaching enthusiasm but Xander carried on as if they had, "A big mother of a blow out that is what we need."

"Xander I don't think it is possible to have a big mother of a blow out in Sunnydale." Said Buffy.

"Especially not on a school night." Added Willow earning her a look of disapproval from Xander.

"Oh come on." Xander implored, "We need it."

"I suppose we could."

"Great, I'll go tell Cordelia."

When Xander had left the room Buffy said in quiet enough voice for Willow not to hear, "Oh great."

****

*********

The Bronze was not full that night but it certainly wasn't empty. It was kind of half full, or half empty depending on your outlook on life. The group of four sat down by a table and ordered some drinks. No one said anything as they waited for the drinks to arrive. They just sat and listened to the music. Finally the drinks arrived but they still didn't talk. They just sat, listened to the music and drank their drinks. Eventually Xander broke the silence, "How about a dance?"

Silence.

Xander tried again, "Dance? Anyone?" He asked hopefully.

The three of them just shook their heads and carried on sitting, listening and drinking (in that order).

"If you ladies won't join me then I shall have to shake my groove thang on my own."

Buffy turned to Willow and asked, "Did he just say groove thang?" 

Willow nodded with a smile.

And with that Xander walked out onto the dance floor and proceeded to shake his groove thang. To call it dancing would be unfair to the word itself. It was more like movement, wild and unrestricted movement. The kind of movement that usually only occurs on ER hospital beds followed by the words 'He's gone into shock'. 

Buffy was transfixed by the performance. "What the hell is he doing?" She asked.

"Dancing." Answered Cordelia.

"You call that dancing?"

"No, he calls it dancing." 

Buffy smiled but quickly removed that when she realised who had made her smile. She made a mental note, tell Xander off for allowing Cordelia to make her smile. 

Xander stopped his 'dancing' and came over to the group, "You ladies not joining me?" He asked.

Buffy raised an eyebrow, "Joining you in what?" She asked.

Xander looked confused, "Dancing." He replied.

The three women are smiled which served to further increase Xander's confusion. He looked at them each in turn with a curious look on his face, "All right." He said in a commanding tone (or as close to a commanding tone as he could manage), "What's going on?"

Buffy, still smiling, said, "Nothing." 

Willow glanced down to her foot and also said, "Nothing."

Xander then Buffy and Willow turned towards Cordelia who just stared at them blankly, "What?" She asked.

"What's going on?" Xander repeated.

"Oh." A lighting bolt of understanding hit Cordelia. "Buffy was making fun of your dancing." She said in a matter of fact kind of way.

Xander immediately turned to Buffy with a look of shock and hurt in his eyes. All she could come up with was, "Xander, it's not what it sounds like." Rather predictable she knew but what else could she say? "I didn't make fun of your dancing." She shot Cordelia a look that could kill but Cordelia returned with the look equivalent of 'what?'

The look of shock had disappeared from Xander's eyes but the hurt remained, "What exactly did you say?" He asked.

Buffy hesitated as she tried to think of something plausible but as she went to speak Cordelia beat her to it. "She said what you did couldn't be called dancing."

Xander looked at Cordelia then back at Buffy and gave her a 'well, is it true?' look. Buffy had also been looking at Cordelia but in a slightly different way. She had been trying to shut Cordelia up with the use of her mind. She was unsuccessful. Now she turned back to see the look on Xander's face, "I didn't say that." She protested.

"You did." Said Cordelia.

"Okay, I did." Xander's face dropped, "But…" Continued Buffy, "It's not what it sounds like."  

"Buffy," Xander said looking up at her, "If you think my dancing sucks then say my dancing sucks."

"Your dancing sucks." She replied.

This clearly upset Xander, "Well, I like to see you do any better!" He said in a raise voice.

There was a moment of silence as Buffy looked Xander straight in the eyes and then she said in a calm voice, "Ok." And she walked out onto the dance floor and began to dance.

She put on an amazing display of dancing. I don't really know what that is but if you do then Buffy did it and if you don't then ask one of those who does to explain it. 

As the dancing proceeded Xander's jaw steadily dropped and by the time Buffy had finished it could well be considered open. "She dance good." Was all he could manage.

She came back over to them and asked Xander, "Better?"

His jaw was still firmly open, so he just stared. Eventually he recovered sufficiently to say, "Just slightly."

Another song started to be played and this happened to be a particular favourite of Buffy's. "I love this song." She said. Then she grabbed Xander's arm and pulled him onto the dance floor before either he or Cordelia could protest. The two of them started to dance. Well, Buffy started to dance. Xander tried too and it's the thought that counts, at least that is what I always say at Christmas. Despite Xander's slight lack of ability they were having a great time. A great time that is until the end of the song. The song they had been dancing to was an up-beat tempo kind of song. The next song was different, very different. The next song was a low-beat romantic ballad. All the couples on the dance floor immediately moved down a romantic def-con rating and proceeded to slow dance together, all except Buffy and Xander. They stood there looking at each other not sure what to do and really not sure what the other wanted them to do. There was a lot of eye contact, a few hesitant movements here and a few hesitant movements there. Slowly, very slowly, Xander moved his hand towards Buffy and she, also slowly, leaned in towards him. Until finally they were just about to touch when Cordelia came between them. "Xander, I have to go home." She said.

He continued to look at Buffy for just a second because focusing on Cordelia and what she had just said, "Err…um…you want to go home? Why?" He asked.

"No I said, I want to go home." Cordelia made a slight movement of her head.

Xander gave her a look of confusion and she replied with a forceful look of her own. Finally Xander figured out what she was implying, "Oh!" He said in realisation, "You want to go home." He turned to Buffy, "She wants to go home."

Buffy tried not to look annoyed, "Yeah, I got that."

"I'm going to take her home." Xander continued not seeming to notice Buffy's response.

Buffy looked increasingly uncomfortable, "Yeah." 

Cordelia then lead Xander towards the door of the club. Just before he reached it he looked back at Buffy who was watching him leave. They shared a moment of eye contact and then he was gone. Buffy went back to the table and before Willow asked she said, "They went home."

"Oh." Was all that Willow said.

Buffy and Willow continue to sit, to listen and to drink. Willow had a fourth, to wait. She was waiting for Oz and his band. Buffy also had a fourth, to think. 


	6. Sun Shine Bright

**Chapter Six - Sun Shine Bright.**

****

It was a sunny day in Sunnydale. It was always a sunny day in Sunnydale. Probably how it got its name, that or an over-enthusiastic estate agent. Buffy was wearing sunglasses and surprisingly small amount of clothes. At least surprisingly little to her mother who had said as much at breakfast. According to Buffy though wearing so little amount of clothes was not only acceptable but her human right, just below the right to free speech. Willow on the other hand was dressed much more conservatively. Anyway, they were making their way towards the school building when Xander caught up with them.

"Hey." He said, with his usual grin. 

"Did you get home all right?" Asked Buffy, with a sly look at Willow.

"Home?" Xander was confused. "Oh, home." He quickly figured at her meaning. "Yeah, I got home all right." With this the grin returned just a bit wider than before. 

"I thought last night was supposed to be a mother of a blow out." Said Buffy trying to hide her annoyance.

"Yeah, about that, my bad." Replied Xander. "Maybe we could do it to..." Before Xander could finish he saw this amazingly beautiful woman appear from a car at the school steps. He just stared.

"To..." Said Buffy trying to get Xander to finish his sentence.

All Xander could say was nonsensical mumbling with added drool.

"Okay, Xander you're making less sense than normal." Said Buffy.

"Err...Buffy?" Willow pointed Buffy in the direction of the beautiful woman.

"What?...Oh."

The other side of the car opened and out stepped Giles.

"Giles?" Shouted Buffy in surprise.

"Giles?" Repeated Willow, also in surprise.

Xander made another nonsensical mumble that sounded a bit like, "Giles?"

Giles looked around the campus and spotted the trio and made his way towards them with the beautiful woman in tow.

"Hello." He said until reaching them. "This is Ms Ferris-Lay."

"Hello." She said.

"Hi." Replied Buffy, looking down her sunglasses at her.

Willow made a hi gesture and Xander just mumbled again. This time earning him a sharp tap on the arm from Willow.

"She's here to help us with our..err...problem." Giles was very conscious that there were lots of students all around them.

"Oh. Good." Said Buffy. 

"Shall we make our way to the library?" Giles was giving an order rather than asking a question.

"We shall." Replied Buffy.

She walked off defiantly in the direction of the library. Willow went to follow but noticed Xander was still staring at Ms Ferris-Lay. So, she grabbed hold of him and forced him to the library. 

Ms Ferris-Lay remained with Giles looking up at the clear blue sky. "It's very sunny, isn't it?"

"Yes, but you get used to it." Answered Giles, before showing her the way to the library.


End file.
